This means war...

This week has been an eventful one. Lance spent the week in Chicago. I spent Tuesday night and large portion of Wednesday with a fever virus.  My mother-in-law came up to help while I was sick.  
I feel obligated to give this disclaimer before reading. 1. I did not want to blog about this, but the Lord has given me nothing other than this, and keeps telling me that I need to tell others.  2. Also, I believe in spiritual warfare. I know there are angels and demons around us at all times.  There is a battle that is constantly happening between things that are not flesh but of the things of the unseen world. Well, this world has always been unseen to me. I have heard stories from people about seeing "things". I never doubted spiritual warfare, but I have certainly doubted some of these stories. I would always brush it off to a coincidence or maybe they were just reading into it.  

Thursday night I had several people over to my house.  The five people and I encountered this unseen world for ourselves.  At first, I thought that this was something else, I even called the sheriff's office to patrol my neighborhood.  However, after doing this I felt foolish, because this was nothing of this world. Shortly after this happened one of the five explained that this has been happening to him quite often.  I believe that God is using this situation to draw that person closer to Himself. So that night we prayed over this person and are still encouraging him. I will not reveal the details any further, because I'm sure that there are many who will doubt what happened,and think that I have lost my mind! What I do want to say is that whatever happened, whether it was of good or of evil my God is for me! Jesus said, "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.  Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
 Satan's plan in all of this is to frighten me. God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7).  My best friend, who was there that night said, "This did not scare me that much; I have been memorizing Romans 8. It just reinforces the fact that there is a spiritual battle happen all around us."  These were such faithful words that were comforting to me. However, I can't deny that I was still afraid when I went to sleep. Why was I afraid? Why did I not trust in the Lord's promise that nothing can by any means hurt me? I think that I had my own spiritual battle that night.  Was I going to trust God or let Satan keep me in fear? On Thursday night, I went back and forth. Every sound I heard made my eyes open wide. I am thankful that God's grace is greater than my lack of faith.  God loves me and I am His child.  Are you experiencing fear right now? Singleness? disease? inadequacy? the future? failure? the past?   Whatever your fear is...I want to encourage you- "The Lord is my Light and my Salvation--whom shall I fear or dread? The Lord is the Refuge and Stronghold of my life--of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27: 1"


The Armor of God- Ephesians 6
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
 ¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. ¹⁹ Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.